The futures market opened stronger Wednesday, and looked poisedto remain range-bound ahead of the weekly American Gas Association(AGA) storage report. But a crowd of sellers came out in theafternoon, sending the September contract down 6.8 cents to $1.917.Estimated volume was 83,479.

One source pointed to the prompt month’s inability to stay abovethe critical $1.94 level as a reason for the softness. “Oncesupport at $1.94 was violated it was only a matter of time untilthe bears set their sights on the $1.88-89 level, the New-York areabroker said referring to the 1-cent price gap created by Monday’sopen.

A California marketer said the same fundamental factors-storageand weather, that have caused him to be a bear since last Novemberwere once again at large in Wednesday’s market. “You can eithersell the market on weakness or sell it on strength. What we haveseen [Tuesday and Wednesday] was selling on strength,” hecontinued.

However, a New Jersey energy analyst, was quick to point outthat the market can turn around in a hurry. He does not rule outanother round of short covering, citing the existence of a tropicalwave located in the Caribbean, and a market, that “still has someshorts out there.”

The National Weather Service said yesterday morning a tropicalwave about 850 miles east of the Lesser Antilles is graduallybecoming better organized and could develop into a hurricane duringthe next 12-24 hours. Another tropical wave located a few hundredmiles southwest of the Cape Verde Islands also has some potentialfor development over the next few days.

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